Friday, June 19, 2009

As fan Jeff Doten of the website Barsoomia noted recently, a company called Barsoom Pictures Inc. has some kind of role in Disney/Pixar’s long-awaited John Carter of Mars film (2012). A search of the California Secretary of State’s corporations database reveals that paperwork for a company called Barsoom Pictures Inc., 500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, CA, was filed in late April 2008. The agent listed is Marsha L. Reed, who, if I’m not mistaken, is an executive at Disney. In addition, a search of the Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code's business entity database reveals that Barsoom Pictures Inc. was registered to conduct business in that state on June 8, 2009.

On June 12, 2009, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Disney/Pixar will film part of John Carter of Mars in Utah, spending about $27 million and creating nearly 400 jobs. In return for generating this economic activity, the project will receive a $5.5 million tax credit under a state incentive program. While The Salt Lake Tribune did not mention Barsoom Pictures Inc., an article published in the Desert News on June 11, 2009, stated that the Governor's Office of Economic Development Board (GOED) "also approved a refundable tax credit of up to $5.5 million for Barsoom Pictures." Presumably, the tax credit will be paid out of the Utah Film Commission's Motion Picture Incentive Fund.

As Governor Jon Huntsman stated in a GOED press release in April 2009, “There is Hollywood and Bollywood, Utah has Saltywood. The combination of the enhanced [tax] incentive, our variety of scenery and locations, as well as our proximity to Los Angeles all contribute to our reputation as a premier destination for filmmaking.”

"I'm an optimist. I discard all such dark tomorrows. I have faith in man as God and God as man; I believe we'll be immortal, seed the stars and live forever in the flesh of our children. That's my job as a writer -- to show man his basic goodness, to dramatize his struggle up and away from this planet." -- RB